Rani started a small shop that sells some really cool stuff made from garbage and found materials from across Nepal. As fellow garbage collectors, we loved the idea. We also liked the designs and items she and her organization managed to create, which range from Christmas ornaments and bowls to purses, belts and bags, all made of discarded chip bags, used bicycle tires and candy wrappers, among other things.
Rani's story is pretty amazing.
She belongs to an organization called HEED (Health, Education, Empowerment, Development), and she is the Director of Recycle-Handicrafts. She said her goals are to provide "income generating work, education, health and family planning for women and their families." The organization she is a part of works with Nepali women in rural villages to collect, and wash garbage and turn it into usable, marketable products. HEED uses the proceeds from the sales of these products to provide a fair wage to the women workers, provide access to free healthcare, family planning, and schooling for their children.
The website for the HEED NGO is www.heednepal.org, though it may be temporarily down by the time this is published. Eventually, visitors to the site will be able to make purchases online.
These ornaments are definitely worthy of our tree...which we will hopefully be home to put up in 2013...or 2014...
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| Christmas ornaments made from "cleaned-garbage." |
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| Rani showing off one of her messenger bags made from recycled truck tire tubes. |
Hi. My name is Stephanie Pulzone and I'm from Pleasant Hill,Louisiana. I was introduced to your blog by my science teacher and I've been reading a lot of the stuff you guys have done. Reading about all the cool places you've been and the things you've done is really inspirational. I've always wanted to travel around the world and experience something different than what I'm used to. This particular article caught my attention because I thought it was really cool. Just knowing she hand made all those beautiful things was amazing. I like unique and different things and looking at what she made really caught my attention and made me think to myself why can't people here try that? We've got plenty of trash. I hope to see more posts from you guys! I enjoy reading them.
ReplyDeleteAmazing giveaway! I have never imagined that these waste products can be utilized in such a creative way. There are literally thousands of products which can be recycled to create such reusable things. We often dump plastics and other stuff thinking that these products cannot be used further, but actually if we employ the habit of recycling, these waste products can be converted into useful materials.
ReplyDeleteHey Liz, items are looking truly amazing. I've read many DIY blogs where people have shown their creativity using waste materials, but when I came to know the fact that you can't just make these types of items if you don't have creative mind. I've tried making something like this, but ended up with no result. All I was think just to get some idea again looking on the internet or maybe I can find a good tutorial. Thanks for sharing a great post, the creativity of making handbag from Tyre tubes is impressive.
ReplyDeleteReference : TheBagShop For Leather Handbags